A Survey of Christian Perspectives and an Introduction to Postmillennialism
I. CEP Introduction
This article is the culmination of work done by Jason Grogg who has lived in Dominica for several years endeavoring to spread the Christian faith, reform the Church, and challenge government corruption. During his time in Dominica, he has worked to help equip the churches, based on real biblical convictions, by reforming their end times views away from a defeatist stance towards one of optimism, hope, and victory. Jason himself has only in the last couple years entered into the Reformed faith and into postmillennialism after growing up his entire life in the shadow of the rapture and the dispensational view of the immanent failure of Christianity in the world. Through his studies he realized not only is the position of post-millennialism of strong biblical warrant, but it is also greatly misunderstood and unknown to many evangelicals. Likewise, during his time in Dominica, Jason began to also realize the great deal of ignorance among the pastors (the old guard) of the religious establishment when it came to biblical eschatology, indeed many didn’t even know their own views or what other Christians believed at all.
It was through the recognition of this need that Jason would then proceed to develop study guides for pastors on a whole myriad of subjects, introducing them to classical reformation theology on areas ranging from the centrality of Christ in the Gospel, to the need for biblical male headship both at home and in the church, the recognition that all nations and their governments are to be submitted to the authority of Christ as King, and of course the end times. Hence, this work was intended to help churches as a brief survey of eschatological perspectives as well as a very basic introduction to the position of postmillennialism. With the help of Jon-Michael Samek in editing and assisting in the final draft as well as my own review and the writing of this introduction, we felt as a session of Christ the King Reformed Catholic Church and the Christian Exodus Project that this was a helpful for all especially in light of our own group's diversity of views and debates on the matter (having Baptist, Charismatic, Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, Adventist, Messianic, Presbyterian, and Anabaptist perspectives among us).
That being said, I want to be ABSOLUTELY CLEAR, that we DO NOT exclude people from joining because of differences on the end times unless it is heretical in some way (contradicts the core teaching of the Nicene Creed); however, unless you are a person who believed Jesus already came back and isn’t coming again, your particular views are probably acceptable to us as a personal conviction; however, if you are interested in learning the particular teaching perspective of the session as well as to get a brief overview of the different views that are out there, please be sure to read on and enjoy and may God get all the glory!!
II. Author's Introduction: Why Postmillennialism? Why This Survey?
When God makes a promise, we have a choice. We can laugh like Sarah or have faith like Abraham. We are having this talk because, as Christians, we want to make sure we have faith based in the correct understanding of God’s Word. God has promised the church that the gates of hell will not prevail against her, that all the ends of the earth will turn to the Lord, and that all the families of the nations will worship before him. My hope in this short write up is to open minds up to postmillennialism and make clear that there are different eschatological perspectives beyond the whole "rapture, tribulation, thousand-year millennium" paradigm we have all heard our whole lives.
III. Basic Introduction to Hermeneutics
The way in which we approach Scripture and the assumptions we bring to the text are vitally important matters. This is especially true when disputing doctrines like eschatology. So let’s start with this, the fundamental truth that God exists. (Gen 1:1). The Bible doesn’t ever explain God. The Word of God simply says God did and thus He is established from Genesis to Revelation. The Bible also assumes that history is under the providential control of God. All Scripture is inspired, authoritative, inerrant and internally self-consistent.
Another hermeneutical assumption is that Jesus is Lord. Our understanding of what He has done, is doing, and will do, will profoundly affect our interpretation of Scripture. From the beginning to the end, Scripture is centered on Christ. In this truth we find our salvation and a great deal of our disagreements when we talk “end times.” So, I start with the understanding that we are among brothers in Christ and having different views on “end times” is not the same as talking about salvation. These are different conversations.
Lastly, one of the most important and ancient of hermeneutical principles is that Scripture interprets Scripture (Scriptura Scripturae Interpres), which should be obvious because Scripture is the public revelation of God to man. We are to use normal grammatical rules, but that does not mean we will automatically interpret everything literally. The question of literalism must be decided on a text-by-text basis. Keep this in mind, the only infallible rule for the interpretation of Scripture is Scripture itself.
Side note: Jews preserved the oracles of the OT until Christ. The Church is now in charge to preserve both the OT and NT.
IV. The Basic Four Millennial Positions Held Today: a simple summary
1. Historic premillennialism teaches that at the end of the present age will be the Great Tribulation followed by the second coming of Christ. At Christ’s coming, the Antichrist will be judged, the righteous will be resurrected, Satan will be bound, and Christ will establish His reign on earth which will last for a thousand years and be a time of unprecedented blessing for the church. At the end of the Millennium, Satan will be released and will instigate a rebellion, which will be quickly crushed. The unrighteous will at this point be raised for judgement, after which the eternal state will begin.
2. Dispensational premillennialism (most popular position of our time) offers the most complex chronology of the end times. According to the dispensationalism, the present church age will end with the rapture of the church, which, along with the Antichrist, will indicate the seven-year Great Tribulation. GT will end with the battle of Armageddon as Christ comes to destroy His enemies. Nations will be gathered for judgement. Those who supported Israel will enter and the rest will be cast into hades to await the Last Judgement. Christ will sit on the throne of David and rule the world from Jerusalem for a literal 1,000 years. Israel will be given the place of honor among the nations again. The temple will be rebuilt, and the temple sacrifices will be reinstituted as memorial sacrifices. At the end of the millennial kingdom, Satan will be released and lead unbelievers into rebellion against Christ and the New Jerusalem. The rebellion will be crushed by fire from heaven, and Satan will be cast into the lake of fire. The wicked will be brought before the Great White Throne, judged, cast into the lake of fire, and at this point the eternal state will commence.
3. Amillennialism sees Revelation 20 as a spiritual reign of Christ with the saints throughout the entire present age where both good and evil see growth. Then this present age will be followed by the second coming of Christ, the general resurrection, the Last Judgement, and the new heaven and the new earth.
4. Postmillennialism teaches the “thousand years” occurs prior to the Second Coming. During that time the Holy Spirit will draw unprecedented multitudes to Christ through the faithful preaching of the gospel. Among those who are saved will be ethnic Israelites who have thus far rejected the Messiah. At the end of the present age, Christ will return, there will be a general resurrection of the just and the unjust, and the final judgement will take place.
V. The Two Perspectives of Redemptive History: Dispensationalism and Covenant Theology.
Dispensationalism believes that the church consists only of those believers saved between Pentecost and the Rapture. Old Testament believers are not included in the body of Christ, the church. The other major distinctive is the teaching of the imminent pretribulation rapture of the church. As the name indicates it divides biblical history into self-contained dispensations. The most common divide is broken up into 7 sections. The main critique is the unbiblical doctrine of “the church” and we see this play out in the reading of the book of Revelation.
Covenant theology teaches that God structured redemptive history around the biblical covenants. Normal covenants between men involves equals, however God’s covenants are not dependent on men. God does not even ask our opinion. The covenants are sovereignly imposed, personal bonds which can be described as: “God ordained bond of union, peace, friendship, and service between the Lord and His people.” Keep this in mind the first declaration of the covenant of redemption contains in seed form every basic principle which manifests itself subsequently. God reveals in a most balanced fashion the various elements constituting his commitment to redeem his fallen creation.The Old Testament covenants were never intended to be final. They were always intended to lead God’s people to Christ. (Gal 3) The culmination of the covenant (singular, we also say “new covenant”) is the final sacrifice of Christ once and for all. (Heb 9,10)
Conclusion
The dispensational approach to Scripture has resulted in a multitude of erroneous doctrines. Dispensationalism does not adequately portray the unity of God’s redemptive work, opting instead for a compartmentalized structure which obscures many of the intricate threads that are woven together throughout Scripture.
The covenantal approach to Scripture recognized the discontinuities in Scripture without destroying the underlying unifying themes and promises. It maintains that in the person and covenantal work of Jesus Christ, we find the central, unifying theme of Scripture and the fulfillment of all of God’s redemptive promises. It is this approach that will be followed in the remainder of this work.
VI. Patristic, Medieval, Reformation, & Modern Eschatology.
It is impossible to study any theological subject adequately in a historical vacuum. It is our duty to honor Christ, and as his church, to study the gifted teachers whose insights into Scripture are invaluable. We are, after all, living in the church age 2000 years from her beginning and to dishonor our church fathers is dangerous and foolish.
40-999AD ≈The apostolic and patristic fathers did not have an elaborate eschatology. They had the understand of the OT Jews and (what was then) the current writings of the church. This includes the book of Revelation (65AD). These are the same fathers that witnessed or received firsthand accounts of the Temple's destruction in A.D. 70.
We find that the early church creeds expressed the central tenets of eschatological orthodoxy with no clear or explicit pronouncements on the time or nature of the Millennium. However, it does implicitly reject chiliasm or premillennialism. According to the Apostles’ Creed the purpose of Christ’s second coming is “to judge the living and the dead,” not to establish a thousand-year kingdom. The apex of developed writings comes from Augustine, these would define the orthodoxy of the Middle Ages.
1000-1500 ≈Medieval times saw no solid development of Augustinian eschatology. The Roman Catholic Church started to teach an image of the pilgrim seeking a destination versus a cosmic drama complete with plot and climax. This started the church down a path that rejected interaction with society and culture and saw Christians as “pilgrims on earth traveling to heaven.”
1517-1750≈The Reformer, Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses to the church door starting what we would consider the Reformation. The eschatological position of the leading Reformers remained generally Augustinian. Because of the conflict with Rome several new emphases emerged. These focused mainly on the identity of the Antichrist and method of interpreting the book of Revelation.
Luther’s notables: The Papacy is the Antichrist, Revelation is a prophecy of the entire history of the church, the Millennium was fulfilled with the rise of the Turks and papacy.
Calvin’s notables: Rejected premillennialism, calling it “too childish either to need or to be worth a refutation.” He wrote in ways that would make us think of modern “amill” or “postmill” with his hope and prayer for massive conversion. He encourages us to have zeal for daily progress.
Puritan Eschatology continued to employ a historicist interpretation of the book of Revelation and saw it as a prophecy of the history of the church, with a large number of Puritan leaders embracing an optimistic eschatology.
John Owen: Anticipated a time of unprecedent success for the gospel of Christ taught in these six promises of God.
1. Fullness of peace for the gospel.
2. Purity and beauty of ordinances and gospel worship.
3. Multitudes of converts, persons, nations.
4. Full casting out and rejecting of all will worship.
5. Professed subjection of the nations throughout the whole world to the Lord Christ.
6. Glorious and dreadful breaking of all the rise in opposition unto him.
The Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms (1647) does not pick a millennial view. The Westminster divines apparently believed that it was God’s will and plan to destroy the kingdom of Satan, propagate the gospel throughout the entire world and bring the fullness of the Gentiles, and exercise His Power to bring these things to pass.
1750-2000+ ≈Modern eschatology opened with the Enlightenment and the witnessed the rise of an anti-supernatural rationalism that has affected the church to this day. Jonathan Edwards a well-known theologian, Charles Hodge, A.A. Hodge, James Henley Thornwell and others carried on the “Postmill” viewpoint on into the late nineteenth century. In the twentieth century, we saw the steep decline in “Postmill” thinking due in large part to the Scofield Reference Bible in 1909 and the two world wars.
B.B. Warfield: A staunch defender of the “Postmill” teaching. He writes this: “The assumption that the dispensation in which we live is an indecisive one, and that the Lord waits to conquer the world to himself until after he returns to earth, employing the new and more effective methods that he has set at work in our own time, is scarcely in harmony with the New Testament point of view. According to the New Testament, this time in which we live is precisely the time in which our Lord is conquering the world to himself; and it is the completion of this conquest which, as it marks the completion of his redemptive work, so sets the time for his return to earth to consummate his Kingdom and establish it in its eternal form."
Other men to study: Herman Bavinck, Geerhardus Vos, Louis Berkhof, Anthony Hoekema, Greg Bahnsen, Gary DeMar, Rousas Rushdoony, R.C. Sproul and Doug Wilson, among others.
Oswald T. Allis (1878-1973): My own studies in this and related fields have convinced me that the most serious error in much of the current “prophetic” teaching of today is the claim that the future of Christendom is to be read not in terms of Revival and Victory, but of growing impotence and apostasy, and that the only hope of the world is that the Lord will by His visible coming and reign complete the task which he has so plainly entrusted to the church. This claim is rendered formidable and persuasive by the all too obvious fact of the past failures and present feebleness of the church,but it is pessimistic and defeatist. I hold it to be unscriptural. The language of the Great Commission is world embracing; and it’sbackedby the authority and power of One who said: “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations.” The duty of the church is to address herself to the achieving of this task in anticipation of her Lord’s coming. And not to expect Him to call her away to glory before her task is accomplished.
VII. Conclusion
The brief survey of history points to a key element of Christian eschatology: that in the future Jesus Christ is coming to judge the quick and the dead as well as to bring about the resurrection of our mortal bodies. Secondly there has been little consensus among Christians on end times. Third, the elements of the main three millennial positions have been present at least since the earliest centuries of the Christian church. Last, since the time of the early church, post A.D. 70, that there has existed a generally optimistic eschatology is very evident. The early church did clearly believe that God made a glorious promise concerning the future of the church and her gospel preaching. I too believe this more than ever, no matter the headlines in the papers.
More to come.
-Jason Grogg
May 2024
Introduction by Mr. Johnson.
Editor and Contributor: Jon-Michael Samek.